


Sweet Moonlight

by ConeyIslandBlitz



Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: Fluff, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Inspired by Twitter, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24908431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConeyIslandBlitz/pseuds/ConeyIslandBlitz
Summary: In which Rimmer and Lister have a heart to heart.Set after The Promised Land.#NoBetaWeDieLikeMen
Relationships: Dave Lister/Arnold Rimmer
Comments: 11
Kudos: 48





	Sweet Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Good day fellow Dwarfers! The following fic is loosely based on this prompt I saw in a Twitter thread:
> 
> "bro... what if you were gently tending to my wounds 😳 while scolding me for being so reckless 😳 but you stopped mid-sentence when you looked up to find me longingly staring at you 😳 what then bro 😳 the tension is getting too unbearable bro 😳 your eyes drop to my lips 😳 i swallow heavily 😳 now we’re leaning closer towards each other as if in a trance 😳 bro....... 😳 bro.... 😳 your lips are now hovering only a fingertip's distance away from mine 😳 i can feel your warm breath on my face 😳 and i wonder if you can hear the rapid staccato of my heart 😳 i close my eyes and-"
> 
> The fluff spirited it away and now look at it.

A combination of fear, anger and relief continued to sweep over Rimmer as he saw his bunkmate sitting upright on the medibay bed with his legs dangling over the side, getting seen to by Kryten. Without a moment's hesitation, he strode over to them.

"I'll take it from here, Kryten," he said with the most authoritative voice he could muster, trying his hardest to hold it all together.

"Are you sure, sir?" Kryten asked, taken aback by Rimmer's apparent sudden interest in Lister's welfare. Rimmer gave him a look that warned him to get the hell outta Dodge or face the consequences. Kryten nervously explained the situation to Rimmer, then backed away and scurried off out of the medibay, as though he suddenly remembered he had an awful lot of laundry to do. Rimmer then turned to Lister, not giving any of this thoughts and emotions away as he began to dab at Lister's thankfully superficial wounds, and this made Lister inexplicably nervous. The wounds were all over his arms and face, and a few were on his chest. Rimmer found it surprisingly... Therapeutic? To be the one taking care of Lister like this? Instead of Kryten? Rimmer always found Kryten to be too much of a mother hen to Lister, almost letting nobody get a word in edgeways. What that metal bastard always conveniently forgot was that nobody knows Dave Lister like Arnold Rimmer knows Dave Lister. They go back well over three million years, for smeg's sake. Granted, before the accident they hardly got along, and frankly it's something he's come to regret at this point in their lives - well, his afterlife - but now he feels an attachment to Lister, and for so long he was unsure which form this attachment took. And then it hit him. It hit him the moment he was unbuttoning Lister's shirt for easy access to his chest wounds and started cleaning them up, which ultimately proved to be disappointingly quick work. Lister couldn't find it in him to make eye contact with Rimmer, except for stealing a few glances his way, but he did hear Rimmer's breath hitch slightly; that made his heart want to burst out of his chest, and Rimmer could sense it. That's how well he knew Lister.

_ 'You always were one to wear your heart on your sleeve, Listy. God I love that about you. Makes me wish I were capable of it myself,'  _ thought Rimmer.

Lister almost didn't want to break the silence. There was a tension in the air between them that was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. It was almost stifling. Rimmer was the first to speak.

"I just need to know one thing, Listy," Rimmer said in a low voice, dabbing at a slightly deeper wound on Lister's left arm, "what were you thinking, investigating that derelict by yourself?"

"I wasn't, to be honest," Lister confessed as he fidgeted with the hem of his open shirt, "it's just- the rest of you were busy, and... curiosity got the better of me. It was meant to be a simple loot and scoot, and I tried to be careful..." Lister trailed off with a sigh, as a feeling of shame rippled through his heart. He couldn't bear to look at Rimmer, knowing how much Rimmer was driven nuts by his impulsivity.

"Listy..." Rimmer began, as he dabbed at another wound on Lister's arm, "you should have alerted us. We'd have been your back up should things go awry," his voice became gradually more erratic and panicked, "You should consider yourself lucky you only got away with a few bumps and scrapes! Have you any idea what could have happened to you? I was worried sick when I couldn't find you, I thought you'd died out there-"

Upon hearing this, Lister looked up to face Rimmer, and they made eye contact. Rimmer cleared his throat, realising that he had his hands on Lister's shoulders, almost shaking him, and he'd found his way between Lister's legs, then took a fresh ball of cotton wool, dipped it in the little glass bowl of diluted rubbing alcohol that Kryten had been using, and Rimmer dabbed at the small cut beneath Lister's right eye, maintaining eye contact with him, resting a hand on Lister's shoulder for balance. Lister couldn't help but to crack a smile, and blush when he felt Rimmer's thumb start to stroke the bare skin underneath his unbuttoned shirt. Lister could really feel it now. He could feel the urge to kiss Rimmer senseless, but he held out, instead opting to rest his hands on Rimmer's hips.

"Arn... I dunno what to say, man." He had a twinkle in his eye that indicated that rather than mocking Rimmer, he was genuinely flattered. Lister had an infectious smile, and it rubbed off on Rimmer almost immediately. It was his turn to blush now. The two quantum entangled bunkmates shared a chuckle; Rimmer briefly averted his gaze, cleared his throat, and looked back up to meet Lister's eyes again.

Lister's expression had changed in the nanosecond that Rimmer had averted his eyes. Lister was now full of longing, or perhaps he always was, and Rimmer couldn't find it in him to look away. 

"You didn't have to do this, ya know. Clean me up and all that," Lister said, trying to break the silence. His eyes flitted to Rimmer's lips and back to his eyes, which Rimmer noticed.

"Well... I wanted to. I, um..." Rimmer felt a lump form in his throat, but he took a deep breath and soldiered on, pulling away to take a seat next to Lister and allowing his hand to trail down Lister's arm, "over the years, I've come to care deeply about you, Listy. I don't know how I stuck it out as Ace for as long as I did; all I wanted after every rescue mission was to come back home, to you." Rimmer looked over to Lister and smiled. A super rare, genuine smile, to which Lister responded by beaming back at him. Rimmer continued, "I missed driving you up the wall with Space Corps Directives and messing them up, I missed your unfaltering optimism whenever we got into a pickle, I- damnit, Dave, I missed  _ you _ ." Rimmer sighed, his hand resting on Lister's, using his thumb to gently stroke the knuckles. Lister let out a chuckle, feeling relieved, and validated.

"I missed you too, Arn. I spent so many nights in tears; thinking about you all the time, wondering how you were doing, and if you would ever come back or not... And the possibility that I might have never seen you again terrified me," Lister confessed as his voice threatened to break, looking down as he took a deep breath and plucked up the courage to continue, "I was lost without ya, man. Kris was alright, don't get me wrong, but she wasn't my Kris, ya know? Having her around just made me realise things I never saw before, and... I'm glad she got back to her own dimension, to her own Dave," Lister paused, and gave a deep sigh as though he were reliving that dark period of his life, "but I still didn't have you. Until I did. And that's when I knew." Before Rimmer could ask, Lister turned his hand and interlaced his fingers with Rimmer's, smiling at him once more.

"You know, I never believed in love..." Rimmer began before trailing off.

"That's because your parents never showed you any. That's no childhood to have, man," Lister interrupted as if to validate Rimmer's unshakable childhood trauma, "sorry, carry on."

"No, you're right, Dave. My parents, my brothers, none of them showed me any love. I got to a point where I… I figured I just didn't deserve it. But gradually, you've been changing all of that for me," Rimmer glanced over to Lister, his eyes red and brimming with tears, relieved that he could admit it to himself, let alone Lister. Lister nodded with a proud smile.

"Good. And I know that I'm partly to blame for that as well, and… I'm sorry," Lister began, kissing Rimmer's hand. He was on a roll and he wasn't about to break his stride now so he continued, putting his other hand atop Rimmer's and caressing it, "You're not the exception that proves the rule anymore, Arn. I lost you, and then I got you back, but it wasn't  _ you  _ you… and eventually I lost him too. But finally I got  _ you _ back. The real you. The original you," Lister's voice was barely above a whisper when he said, "the best you."

Rimmer's breath hitched, failing to find the right words to say in response. He did the only thing he could think of, and he turned to face Lister. He cupped Lister's cheek with his left hand and stroked it with his thumb, whispering as though he were having an epiphany, "it's you, Listy. You're my sun. The sun to my moon." Lister then edged closer to him, unlinking his left hand to put it on the back of Rimmer's neck, pulling him closer so their lips could gently meet. They both pulled away for a moment to process, foreheads resting against one another's. They could both still feel the kiss on their lips, and wanted more. Without further ado, they traded whispered 'I love you's and kissed again, this time going deeper, and a little more desperate. Rimmer shifted so that he was lying on the medibay bed, Lister hovering over him, as they continued to kiss, adding more and more steam. For the both of them, nothing ever felt more right than this moment. This moment, that they wished would never end.

They were so lost in one another, they didn't hear the mechanoid's footsteps approaching.

"Oh. Oh my. Engage embarrassment mode," Kryten thought aloud in a low voice as he looked shiftily from side to side, and made to leave. As he left, he saw Cat approaching, and preemptively warned, "I wouldn't go in there if I were you." This made Cat stop in his tracks, and he heard pleasured moans coming from the medibay.

"It's about time too," he thought out loud, scoffing as he walked away, "damn stubborn monkeys." He curiously sniffed the air around the medibay where Rimmer and Lister were thoroughly exploring and worshipping each other's bodies, and found himself pleasantly surprised by the aroma. He decided to leave them to it.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are highly appreciated!


End file.
